ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• New, unusually large virus kills anthrax agent
• Natural plant compound prevents Alzheimer's disease in mice
• Plague or Black Death could re-emerge: Cause of one of the most devastating pandemics in human history revealed
• Belief in immortality hard-wired? Study examines development of children's 'prelife' reasoning
• River of hydrogen flowing through space observed
• How did we get four limbs? Because we have a belly
• 300,000-year-old hearth found: Microscopic evidence shows repeated fire use in one spot over time
• Exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered
• Is there an ocean beneath our feet? Ocean water may reach upper mantle through deep sea faults
• Sensitivity of carbon cycle to tropical temperature variations has doubled
• Drug to reverse breast cancer spread in development
• From one cell to many: How did multicellularity evolve?
• Impulsive personality linked to food addiction
• More benefits emerging for one type of omega-3 fatty acid: DHA
• Fever-reducing meds may help spread the flu

New, unusually large virus kills anthrax agent Posted: 27 Jan 2014 04:38 PM PST From a zebra carcass on the plains of Namibia in Southern Africa, an international team of researchers has discovered a new, unusually large virus (or bacteriophage) that infects the bacterium that causes anthrax. The novel bacteriophage could eventually open up new ways to detect, treat or decontaminate the anthrax bacillus and its relatives that cause food poisoning.

Natural plant compound prevents Alzheimer's disease in mice Posted: 27 Jan 2014 04:37 PM PST A chemical that's found in fruits and vegetables from strawberries to cucumbers appears to stop memory loss that accompanies Alzheimer's disease in mice, scientists have discovered. In experiments on mice that normally develop Alzheimer's symptoms less than a year after birth, a daily dose of the compound -- a flavonol called fisetin -- prevented the progressive memory and learning impairments. The drug, however, did not alter the formation of amyloid plaques in the brain, accumulations of proteins which are commonly blamed for Alzheimer's disease.

Plague or Black Death could re-emerge: Cause of one of the most devastating pandemics in human history revealed Posted: 27 Jan 2014 04:37 PM PST Scientists have discovered that two of the world's most devastating plagues -- the plague of Justinian and the Black Death, each responsible for killing as many as half the people in Europe -- were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, one that faded out on its own, the other leading to worldwide spread and re-emergence in the late 1800s. These findings suggest a new strain of plague could emerge again in humans in the future.

Belief in immortality hard-wired? Study examines development of children's 'prelife' reasoning Posted: 27 Jan 2014 01:48 PM PST By examining children's ideas about "prelife," the time before conception, researchers found results which suggest that our bias toward immortality is a part of human intuition that naturally emerges early in life. And the part of us that is eternal, we believe, is not our skills or ability to reason, but rather our hopes, desires and emotions.

River of hydrogen flowing through space observed Posted: 27 Jan 2014 01:44 PM PST Astronomers have discovered what could be a never-before-seen river of hydrogen flowing through space. This very faint, very tenuous filament of gas is streaming into the nearby galaxy NGC 6946 and may help explain how certain spiral galaxies keep up their steady pace of star formation.

How did we get four limbs? Because we have a belly Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:27 AM PST All of us backboned animals have four fins or limbs, one pair in front and one pair behind. How did our earliest ancestors settle into such a consistent arrangement of two pairs of appendages? Researchers in the Theoretical Biology Department at the University of Vienna and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research have presented a new model for approaching this question in the current issue of the journal Evolution & Development.

300,000-year-old hearth found: Microscopic evidence shows repeated fire use in one spot over time Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:12 AM PST When did humans really begin to control fire and use it for their daily needs? Scientists discovered in the Qesem Cave, an archaeological site near present-day Rosh Ha'ayin, the earliest evidence -- dating to around 300,000 years ago -- of unequivocal repeated fire building over a continuous period. These findings help answer the question and hint that those prehistoric humans already had a highly advanced social structure and intellectual capacity.

Exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:32 AM PST An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered on Jan. 21 has become the focus of observatories around and above the globe, including several NASA spacecraft. The blast, designated SN 2014J, occurred in the galaxy M82 and lies only about 12 million light-years away. This makes it the nearest optical supernova in two decades and potentially the closest type Ia supernova to occur during the life of currently operating space missions.

Is there an ocean beneath our feet? Ocean water may reach upper mantle through deep sea faults Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:32 AM PST Scientists have shown that deep sea fault zones could transport much larger amounts of water from Earth's oceans to the upper mantle than previously thought.

Sensitivity of carbon cycle to tropical temperature variations has doubled Posted: 26 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST The tropical carbon cycle has become twice as sensitive to temperature variations over the past 50 years, new research has revealed. The research shows that a one degree rise in tropical temperature leads to around two billion extra tons of carbon being released per year into the atmosphere from tropical ecosystems, compared with the same tropical warming in the 1960s and 1970s.

Drug to reverse breast cancer spread in development Posted: 25 Jan 2014 07:49 PM PST Researchers are developing a novel compound known to reverse the spread of malignant breast cancer cells. The vast majority of deaths from cancer result from its progressive spread to vital organs, known as metastasis. In breast cancer up to 12,000 patients a year develop this form of the disease, often several years after initial diagnosis of a breast lump. In a recent series of studies, researchers identified a previously unknown critical role for a potential cancer causing gene, Bcl3, in metastatic breast cancer.

From one cell to many: How did multicellularity evolve? Posted: 25 Jan 2014 02:24 PM PST In the beginning there were single cells. Today, many millions of years later, most plants, animals, fungi, and algae are composed of multiple cells that work collaboratively as a single being. Despite the various ways these organisms achieved multicellularity, their conglomeration of cells operate cooperatively to consume energy, survive, and reproduce. But how did multicellularity evolve?

Impulsive personality linked to food addiction Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST The same kinds of impulsive behavior that lead some people to abuse alcohol and other drugs may also be an important contributor to an unhealthy relationship with food, according to new research.

More benefits emerging for one type of omega-3 fatty acid: DHA Posted: 23 Jan 2014 09:59 AM PST A study of the metabolic effects of omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA, concludes that these compounds may have an even wider range of biological impacts than previously considered. They could be of significant value in the prevention of fatty liver disease, but that may also be just the beginning.

Fever-reducing meds may help spread the flu Posted: 22 Jan 2014 06:13 AM PST Researchers assembled information from many sources, including experiments on human volunteers and on ferrets, then used a mathematical model to compute how the increase in the amount of virus given off by a single person taking fever-reducing drugs would increase the overall number of cases in a typical year. The bottom line is that fever suppression increases the number of annual cases by approximately 5%, corresponding to more than 1,000 additional deaths from influenza in a typical year across North America.

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